


Anchor

by turtlesquare



Category: Marble Hornets, Outlast (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Ableism, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, F/F, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, its more like an outlast au, mlm author, putting my children into a vague outlast universe, this isnt 100 percent adhering to the plot of any of the outlast games, weird hybrid of these two things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-05 05:50:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11571654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/turtlesquare/pseuds/turtlesquare
Summary: Jay, an up-and-coming journalist, is sent a series of tapes found in his missing friend's apartment.





	1. Entry 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay gets some tapes, the story gets some context/background.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slow-ish build this chapter because I need to re-establish everything into a separate universe.
> 
> The title has nothing to do with this fic, but i accidentally posted it with the WIP title at first and had to think of something quick.

Jay was a journalist.  An up-and-coming journalist.  Or, to be fair, a dude with a camera, a lot of ambition, and a lot of failed articles to go along with it.  His advisor, Jessica, was always giving him pointers on what to write, but they were always so  _ boring _ .  So he would just write about things that  _ he _ thought were interesting.  Jessica said that’s why his articles always flopped. The whole journalism thing wasn’t the route he intended to take; He had started a blog where he posted obscure findings and out-of-the-loop stories, and it just continued from there.

Then his friend went missing.

Which brought him to his current predicament, sitting on the floor of his dingy apartment and sorting through tapes.  His friend, Alex, had gone missing three years ago, and recently the search had been called off. They began to auction off the belongings left in his house.  Amy, Alex’s ex-girlfriend, had found shoeboxes full of tapes and she had given them to Jay.  Jay was betting that they were shitty homemade porno, since none of them were labelled, but he promised Amy that he’d look through them in case they gave pointers to where Alex had gone.  God, he hoped they weren’t porn.  He didn’t need to see Alex’s dick. 

There were around a hundred tapes though, so it was a bit overwhelming.  There was nothing written on any of them, save for the dates they had been recorded. He figured he’d start with the tapes closest to when Alex had gone missing, because he really didn’t want to sort through every single tape that he had been given.

The tape started out with cast recordings of… a thesis film that he and Alex had started towards the middle of senior year.  It was supposed to be a short film project for their Advanced Film class final project, but Alex had gone missing near the end of it, so Jay got excused for the entire final project.  

It had been an indie-type film, which they were recording at a nearby mental facility.  They had explained that they would just record in a few empty rooms, and wouldn’t record any of the patients or doctors, so they were allowed to do it.  They didn’t get a ton of shots done in there though, seeing as Alex, well, went missing.  He couldn’t even remember exactly what their film was supposed to be about, all the rolls they got were jumbled and out of order.

All the tapes were boring, just a lot of b-roll, until the two most recent tapes, filmed a few weeks before Alex had vanished.  The first video appeared to just be Alex, wandering around a playground at night.  A little weird. Jay didn’t recognize the footage, which meant that it probably wasn’t related to the thesis film.  Alex was saying something, but the audio was so distorted that Jay couldn’t exactly tell  _ what _ was being said. 

As Alex continued to walk and mess around with the playground equipment, the distortion evened out until the video appeared normal.  Alex wandered to the edge of the playground, then turned around. There was  _ something _ behind him, but the suddenly the footage distorted so much that the video cut out with a shrill ringing.  Jay popped the tape out of the player, and ran his hands through his hair before popping in the last tape.  

It started with Alex wandering at the dark playground again. But this time, instead of staying there, he walked past the bark chips and into the surrounding woods.  Five minutes passed with just Alex walking through the woods, occasionally panning the camera around, until a large building stood in the distance.  A large gated building. 

It was the hospital that the two had done their film at.  But it seemed too dark. the fountain out front was illuminated by the lampposts and there were no lights visible in any of the windows.  Stranger still, there was no security officer stationed in the guard booth near the gate. Alex walked up to the gate, and he somehow managed to pry it open, even though it had formerly needed a security code to enter.  There was a millisecond long glitch on the screen, but again, it evened back out.  

Alex headed up towards the entrance of the building, and muttered ‘fuck’ under his breath upon discovering that the main entrance was locked.  He then walked over to the closest window and attempted to open it, but it was barred shut and there didn’t seem to be a way to open it, and even if he had managed to, how would he get in?  

Yet again, the video cut off abruptly with no explanation.  Jay sat through the last few minutes, just to make sure there wasn’t anything at the very end. 

There wasn’t.

He wasn’t sure what to make of the footage.  What was he supposed to do with this information?  Was this even information?  For all he knew, it was just Alex being a creep.  It still left him slightly queasy and unsettled though.  He texted Amy and told her there wasn’t anything important on the tapes, and then went to bed.

  
  


 

 

Jay didn’t dream that night.  Usually he’d wake up with a semblance of what happened, or at least a feeling left behind, but there was nothing.  On top of that, he was exhausted when he woke up.  So when Jessica called him to talk about his next project, it was no wonder he was grumpy with her.

“Hey, Jay, can you meet me at the office? There’s a man with a haunted farm and we need someone to do a short web clip for it.”  She sounded disinterested.  Jay was a bit insulted by the shitty pieces he was constantly given; he could handle something bigger, something better.

“Actually,  _ Jessica _ , I’m busy today,” He grunted, and held his phone between his shoulder and face as he poured himself a cup of coffee.  

“Ok, but maybe you should be busy another time, because you work on commission and last I checked, it’s been weeks since you’ve made anything substantial.  I don’t know exactly how you expect to pay rent like this, but-”

“Look, I have something in mind, alright?  Trust me on this.” 

“Jay…” There was a pause on her end, and a faint beeping in the background. “Fine, alright.  Ok.  But this better be good, or at least decent, because it’s both our asses on the line here.”

“I know what I’m doing.”

Jessica hung up at that.

Shit. He only said that to get Jessica off his ass, he didn’t have an idea, or a lead, or  _ anything _ , but now he had to figure something out or there was the huge chance of him getting fired.  And possibly getting Jessica demoted or fired as well, which would only add to his guilt.  

_ Ok, Jay, you got this.  It shouldn’t be too hard to come up with something better than a crazy farmer, right? _

And then it hit him.  Well, more like he hit them, since he tripped over his whole laptop set-up from the previous night.  He could use the tapes.  Alex had went to that hospital days before he went missing, maybe there were so sort of clues there as to what actually happened to him.  Jay could check out the hospital, maybe get some interviews with some of the doctors there or something.  See if any of them knew anything.

Jay sat down on the couch and held his coffee mug between his hands as he thought.  Why had he decided to veiw all the tapes on the ground the previous night, when the couch was only a few feet away?  God, now he’d have to clean it all up before his roommate got back.  He stared down the tapes, scattered about, while his laptop was sitting there dead.  He’d have to charge that, too.  

He stumbled back up, off the couch, and slipped on his shoes and grabbed his car keys from the hanger next to the door.  He could at least go to the hospital now and see if he could schedule something.


	2. Entry 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Breakin' n Enterin'
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGD_0KhU69k

The drive to the hospital took longer than Jay had expected it to.  Probably because he’d tried to get there from memory, got lost, and had to google maps his way back.  When he got there, there was _definitely_ a guard in the security checkpoint.  He had no idea how Alex managed to get in, this place seemed to be locked down now.  He rolled down his window when the guard left the building.

“Name?” The guard asked, and crossed his arms in what appeared to be an intimidation attempt.  It worked.

“Uh--Jay.”

“You got a last name?” He uncrossed his arms and did the stereotypical officer pose, resting one arm above the driver’s side window of the car, and the other hand on his hip.

“Merrick. I mean, Jay Merrick. Is my full name.”

“Well, _Jay,_ ” He drew his name out much longer than necessary, “you aren’t authorized to be here, so I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“Oh, uh, it’ll be quick, I just have to get an interview or-”

“I’m not going to tell you twice.”

Well shit.  Jay went quiet and nodded, before rolling up his window and very slowly backing out.  

Ok. So it didn’t look like that was going to work.  He’d have to find another way in.  

He’d went back to his apartment and changed clothes, then packed a small bag with snacks, his laptop, and some extra batteries for his camera.  His roommate still wasn’t home yet, so he decided to take a quick shower as well.

After the shower, he spent some time sitting on the couch and thinking.  Not really thinking so much as just kind of dissociating.  He got up, making sure to grab his bag, and left. He planned to rent a room for the night at least, somewhere closer to the hospital, that way he wouldn’t waste too much money on gas. He drove a late 2000’s mazda hatchback, and the mileage was absolute _shit_. He loved his car nonetheless though.

 

 

At the hotel, Jay set up his laptop and went through some of the tapes again to pass the time.  He’d rented the room for a few days, but since he was broke, it wasn’t as close to the hospital as he would have liked it to be.  Still, better than staying at his apartment.  He wished that he had been able to remove some of the distortion from the videos so that he could’ve figured out exactly what was going on, but he wasn’t able to and so he was stuck trying to come up with answers.

Before he knew it, it had already gotten dark out.  Alright, it was time.  He headed out, into his car, and to the hospital.  On the way, he checked out his surroundings to make sure he wasn’t being followed or anything.  His camera sat upon his dashboard, already recording, just in case.  He arrived shortly after leaving, pulling up to the gates on the side of the building.  The place was massive; finding an inconspicuous spot to park took longer than he anticipated.  But he managed, and parked, and locked the doors.  He tucked his keys into his pocket as he eyed the fence.  It wasn’t electric, was it?  He grabbed a nearby stick off the ground and tossed it onto the fence.  Nothing happened, so he figured it was safe, right? That’s how it worked in movies, so it had to be true.

He gingerly stepped forward and reached his hand towards the fence.  He wasn’t shocked, or electrocuted, or _anything_ , so he got his footing and began to climb.  Climbing with a backpack was hell, and he had to constantly stop to catch his breath.  God, this fence was high.  And he was extremely out of shape as well, which didn’t help.  He eventually reached the top, and, yeah, there was definitely barbed wire.  He carefully tried to maneuver himself over it, but ended up missing and fell.  But at least he fell onto the other side.

“Fuck,” He mumbled, brushing himself off.  Thankfully, he managed to shield the camera in his fall.  He lifted it from where it dangled around his chest, and panned around.  It was dark.  Well, ok, duh, it was nighttime.  He didn’t see anyone, but the lights in some of the windows were on, and he began that way.  Basically, away from the front entrance.  He didn’t want to get caught.  

Maybe getting in through a window wasn’t such a good idea.  The windows weren’t only nailed shut, they were also barred.  He spotted a fountain, and next to it, a fire escape staircase.  The fire escape was unstable, but he managed to climb up it, checking the windows on each level.  They were all stuck shut.  He had to make a wide step over a gap near the top, and slipped and almost fell again, but he managed to keep himself on the platform.  At the very top, there was a loose window.  Well, actually, it was a broken window.  He peeked inside, and there were some knocked over bookshelves, but there weren’t any people.  He crawled through, but as soon as he set foot inside, there was a buzzing and then the lights shut off.

“Alright, Jay, it’s ok--the camera has night mode,” He whispered, flicking the camera to night mode.  He scanned it across the room once again, spotting the door to the hallway, and made his way over.  Once in the hallway, he shut off night mode, since the lights out there seemed to be working.  There was some form of barricade immediately to the right of the entrance, a filing cabinet as well as some chairs.  So he wasn’t going that way. There was another door, and inside of there was a room, empty yet again, with more items upturned.  As he walked through the room, there was another loud electrical noise, and he jumped.  It was just the tv turning on somehow.

He mumbled more brief words of encouragement to himself as he ventured forth.  Out through the other door of the room, there was a darker hallway, with more doors and… _Holy shit_ , was that blood? It was. _Ok. Ok, this is normal, nothing out of place here_.  He tiptoed through, to the first door he came across.  It was a small office space, and he spotted a few batteries on the desk.  He snatched them up.  The next room didn’t have batteries, but it had some form of classified document.  He grabbed it and crammed it into his backpack.  As he left that room, he saw a quick shadow entering the next room.

Which also happened to be the room that the blood trail lead to.  He speed-walked to the room across from it, a break room of sorts, and closed the door behind him.  There was a table, and a random door covering that.  He climbed up the door, and pulled himself into the air vent.

 _Oh shit, are those footsteps_ ? _Oh fuck, fuck, fuck--_

He got his legs into the vent just in time, because an inmate came barreling into the room, holding a fucking _knife_ , and furiously tossed shit around the room.  The man stormed out, having not found Jay, and Jay scrambled through the vents.  He could hear voices, and peering into the slats below him, he saw what appeared to be a security officer and a doctor.  He couldn’t tell exactly what they were talking about, though.  He only caught the word “escaped”, but really, that was enough for him and he kept going forward.  When he reached the end, he peered down, and seeing that it was clear, hopped down.  

There was a shadow across from him, in a hallway separated by a large gap. There was a door to the immediate left, and so he tried the knob on that, but it didn’t turn.  There was another door to the right; he didn’t trust it though.  But seeing as the hallway after that was also barricaded, it looked like he had to go through the door.  He opened it, and immediately a fucking _body_ came swinging down.  He shrieked and slammed the door shut.

Fuck, he had to go in.  Someone could have heard him and would be there any second.  A dead body was less dangerous than a living one.  Or, he hoped.  He slowly opened the door, to be hit with a stench he couldn’t quite place.  The room was pitch black, the light from the open door pouring in and barely illuminating a dead, headless body on the ground.  Jay could glimpse a body hanging in the distance, and turned on night mode as he made his way through.  The smell got worse the further in he got, having to twist around bookshelves.  Then he came upon it, a disgusting, wet pile of rotting flesh.  He had stepped in it, heard the _‘squish’_ as his boot became engulfed.  

“ _Beware_ ,” came a sputtering voice.  Jay jumped again, but managed to not scream this time.  The was a body hanging over the mound, barley clawing at the rope wrapped around his neck. “They’re here… they’re too strong… Don’t fight them, run…”

The man appeared to be a security officer, judging  by the outfit he was wearing.  Ok, this was freaking Jay out.  ‘Them’, who? The inmates? Someone else? Some _thing_ else? He tiptoed his way past, out to another hallway.  It was empty minus trash and torn up furniture littered across the floor.  

As he went to turn the corner, some god damned _beast_ jumped out from nowhere, and grabbed him, shouting something about pigs, and Jay struggled but he was a weak man, and was just fucking _thrown through the glass_.

He landed on the floor below, vision going black before he passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I seem to only be able to write at 3-5am, so if there are typos, drop a comment please


	3. Entry 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay meets some interesting characters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been working on chapters but not posting them, oops.

White.  Everything was white, hazy.  There was a low humming above him, surrounding him.  It took Jay a minute to adjust, to open his eyes fully. He almost wished he hadn’t.  Someone was hovering over him, wearing a dirty brown jacket and some sort of hooded mask.  The stranger lifted the camera,  _ Jay _ ’s camera, and pointed it in his face.  Jay tried to smack the camera out of his hands, or maybe grab it, he wasn’t sure, but he was too weak after the fall to be able to.  His vision blurred again, and he was out cold.

 

He woke up with a start, momentarily forgetting where he was.  It came to him fast after that, slamming into his head with the force of a brick wall.  He was in an asylum, in the midst of what he assumed was a riot, and he was defenseless.  He got himself up into sitting position, looked around for his camera, and picked it up.  The inmate from before had left it next to him.  It was still recording.  He got up and pointed it at something on the upper wall that caught his eye. On an Arch, underneath a cross, were words smeared in blood.  Jay zoomed in to get a better glimpse. 

_ Lakes In Stillness Will Take Every Life Of The Night _

It was eerily cryptic, and Jay couldn’t place it, or even figure out how someone got blood up there.  He walked over to some sort of security desk, side-stepping a giant puddle of blood.  Oh.  Dead security guards.  On the desk were some batteries, coincidentally the type his camera took, and a yellow document. He panned the camera around, looking for somewhere to go.  Across from him was some sort of computer room, the only light inside coming from the monitors. He headed that way, as quiet as possible, worried other inmates could be nearby.  There were more dead bodies, puddles of blood, even an arm just dangling off of a desk.  

Ah, a light was coming from a smaller filing room.  He couldn’t avoid stepping in a puddle this time, and his shoes were slipping and squeaking as he stepped into the filing room.  There didn’t seem to be anything, except, there was another document in a manila folder.   _ Maybe I should read these? _

The first one seemed to be some warrant of seizure, warning RossWood Asylum that they would be under new management since security wasn’t doing well enough. He shoved the folder into his bag and checked the other one.  It seemed to be patient records, but the name among with a few other things were redacted.  There were comments about dissociation, and something about a  _ project _ ? The type was small and hard to read.  He tucked that away too, and peeked out the other door.  Well, doorframe, it appeared that the actual door had been ripped off the hinges and was laying against the wall.

The hallway was dark, but he could barely make out someone in a wheelchair, twitching.  He tiptoed out and past a barricade, before taking a deep breath and chancing it, walking past the heavily mutilated inmate.  The guy twitched more, but didn’t do anything otherwise. There was an open door, and Jay stepped inside before freezing up.  There were three patients, sitting around and staring at a tv only playing white noise.  They didn’t even look at him when he entered, so he maneuvered around them until he he reached the other door, and was in yet another hallway. 

There was a door, only one, and he carefully slid through it.  The room was empty, save for two dead bodies.  One was underneath a table and the other one was propped up in a desk chair.  They were both security guards.  Jay tiptoed in, but it seemed safe enough for him to walk normally.  There were more batteries under the table, next to the dead guy, and so he got on his knees and reached underneath to grab them.  There wasn’t anything noteworthy, except, on the other dead body there was a security clearance pass.  He pocketed that as well since it could come in handy at some point.

There wasn’t anywhere else for him to go, the hallway was barricaded off.  He backtracked from the way he came, still cautious when he passed the three inmates.  Out of the room, he attempted to quietly pass the patient in the wheelchair, but the man spasmed and lunged out of it, towards Jay.  He managed to grab Jay’s arms, and knocked him flat onto the ground, screaming loudly as Jay struggled out of his grasp.

“Get them out! Get them out  _ get them out get them out- _ ” 

Jay managed to push him off, and the patient just crawled next to the wheelchair and huddled into a ball, whispering to himself.  Jay ran away down the hall, back through the filing room, through the computer room, and stopped to gasp for breath once he made it back out to the front to the security desk.  

He wasn’t prepared for this when he broke in.  He wasn’t sure what exactly he  _ was _ expecting, but it wasn’t this.  But it was too late, he was already here, he had to stick it through. Idf he got enough information, this could be the scoop of the century.  He might even be able to discover what happened to Alex.   _ Where to next?  _ There were more hallways, but two were dark so he decided on the half-lit one.

The first unlocked door was to a bathroom.  He pushed open the first stall, but then heard footsteps and hid in it.  The footsteps faded.  Instead of exiting the stall, he hopped onto the toilet and lifted himself over the divide and into the other stall.

He wished he hadn’t.  Set over the toilet was a heavily mutilated body.  Above the body was the word “LIAR” and some weird cross over an O, written (moreso smeared) in blood.  The toilet was full of blood, which was also dripping down the porcelain onto the floor.  Jay would definitely have to buy a new pair of shoes after this whole ordeal was over.  He exited the stall and pushed open the door for the third and final one.  It was disgusting, but he’d seen worse in the college dorm bathrooms.  Mind you, upon entering the stall and looking closer, there was a  _ hand _ sticking out of the bowl.  

He paused his recording to go back and take a picture of the middle stall, then left the bathroom and went to the door immediately across from it.  There were guts strewn across shelves, the gutted guard laid across a fallen chair.  There were more manila folders, and Jay stuffed them into his bag. 

There was a window, and a security room.  Hopefully the badge he stole from the earlier guard would work… He held it to the scanner next to the door, and was granted entrance.  On the desk was a keyboard, a small monitor, and then multiple monitors on the wall that showed the hallways of the hospital.  There were a few more folders on the desk, and Jay took those ones as well.  Might as well get as much info as he could, right?  He sat on the desk chair and tapped into the mainframe.  He just needed to unlock the front doors so he could get out.  It couldn’t be  _ that _ hard. 

He managed to find the code to unlock the main entrance. Or so he thought.  There was a loud ‘boom!’ and then half the lights turned off on the monitor. At which point, he could hear hurried footsteps heading his direction.

_ Shit. _

Thinking quick, he scrambled from the chair and squatted down underneath the desk.  There wasn’t anything nearby that he could use as a weapon, so he hoped it didn’t come to that.  

Into the room walked someone in… a lab coat.  That was all that Jay could tell from his spot under the desk.  Hey, maybe they were a doctor?  He peeked out to get a better look.  There was a stocky man, probably around his age, with dark hair and sideburns.  He looked tired.  He  _ had _ to be a doctor, or assistant, since he wasn’t covered in blood.  Right?  Jay unfolded himself from under the desk and it seemed to startle the man, who jumped back a bit.

“Who are you?”  The other man asked quickly, backing up.

“Oh, I-I’m a reporter, my name is Jay, uh…” It struck him that  _ maybe _ bringing up that he broke in was a bad idea.  The man calmed down a bit.

“What are you doing here?”

“Well, as much as I’d like to tell you, I’m more worried about getting  _ out _ of here,” The inmates were still on the loose, and after seeing all the blood and other horrifying things, he was more concerned about his safety.

“Yeah...Yeah, that’s a good point.  We can try the front doors,” He walked off, quickly, and Jay followed him.  The front entrance was close enough. 

They didn’t come across anyone else in the short walk. Jay sped up and rushed to the door once it was in view, wanting to get out of the dark hospital as fast as possible.  They made it outside, and Jay ran to the side of the fence where his car was parked, and tucked his camera away so he could begin climbing.  The guy with him climbed up and dropped down next to him, panting heavily.  After they both caught their breath, Jay unlocked his car.

“Do you...do you need a ride anywhere? I assume you worked here.  I hope.”

“Uh, yeah… I was a nurse. Just… I lost my wallet and my phone, and I don’t live near here, so…”

“That’s fine. I’m staying at a hotel near here, you can probably stay with me, at least until like.. You can go home, or the police shut down the riot here. Or something.”

“Thanks,” He shucked off the lab coat, revealing a flannel underneath, which he pulled a pack of cigarettes out of. “I’m Tim, by the way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OBVIOUSLY some differences than the game. But it says in the tags that it's not following the outlast plot completely.


	4. Entry 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> {semi-filler chapter} Jay and Tim: just two awkward, awkward dudes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I Didn't Forget About This

Tim was strange.  Jay supposed that he didn’t have much room to judge, but… This guy didn’t seem to want to make any moves to contact anyone; when they got to the hotel, all he did was chain smoke for half an hour and then come inside and pass out on the single hotel bed.  Although, the documents he’d gotten from the hospital proved that the doctors there were pretty fucked up. And Tim was a nurse, so he’d probably seen his fair share of messed up stuff.  It was like they were  _ experimenting _ on the patients.  No, not  _ like _ they were experimenting--they  _ were _ experimenting on the patients.  

Jay carefully read through the documents he collected to try and get a better glimpse as to what was going on at the hospital.  There were papers about how Rosswood was going to get shut down due to malpractice, papers about an experiment called “PROJECT OP”, and more patient records with redacted information.  Jay uploaded all the footage from the hospital to his laptop and cleared the memory cards so he had more space to record.  He glanced back, and Tim was still asleep.  

_ Would it be weird to lay down and sleep next to him? _

Jay was exhausted.  He just wanted to get some rest.  He closed his laptop after he was sure it was charging, and curled up into a ball in the chair to sleep.

 

He hadn’t really meant to fall asleep, just to rest his eyes.  He woke up to sunlight shining from the window and glinting directly on his face.  He blinked lazily, rubbed his eyes, and stretched before getting up.  He had forgot Tim was there until he accidentally walked in on him using the bathroom; he let out a string of apologies before quickly closing the door and walking away with a heated face.   _ God _ .  He searched through his bag for something to change into, but apparently he hadn’t brought clothes with him.  Of  _ course  _ he didn’t.  He didn’t particularly want to head all the way back to his apartment and grab clothes either, so he was stuck in his outfit from the day before.

Tim was out of the bathroom shortly after, and went to stand next to where Jay was sitting back at his laptop.  He just stood there for a moment, not saying anything.  Jay wasn’t actively on his laptop, instead he was reading a stream of messages that Jessica had sent him since he hadn’t shown for work.  Right as he was about to message her, she called him.

“Jay, this is the second day you’ve been a no show.  They’re talking about firing you, what’s going on?” Jay couldn’t tell if she was angry or worried.  Most likely both.

“Look, Jess, I’m onto something.  Don’t worry, I’ll be back to work soon.”

“Soon better be real soon then, or you’re not going to have a job here anymore,” She was definitely worried. She sighed into the phone before apologizing. “Sorry.  Boss has been really cracking down on me lately.  I’ll message you later, I have to go.”

“Alright, stay safe,” He commented without really thinking, before he hung up.  Tim was staring at Jay’s laptop screen the whole time. He cleared his throat before speaking up.

“Who was that?” Tim asked, voice rough.  He crossed his arms over his chest, then unfolded them and tried resting them at his sides.  Seemed like he couldn’t get comfortable.

“Uh, just a coworker.” He shrugged. “What do you want me to do? I can drive you home if you need me to.”

“No, it’s... far.  I’d need to take a plane down.  I can’t just leave the hospital either, um..” His voice trailed off.  He wasn’t making eye contact.  Maybe that was just a habit, though, not looking people in the face.

“Oh yeah, all your stuff is probably there, huh? In your work locker.”

“Yeah.  Not really sure what to do about that.”

“I mean… I’m going to go back, try to find more of these,” Jay held up one of the folders, “find out what’s  _ really _ going on.  Don’t worry, I’ll leave your name out when I make my case.” Trying to lighten the mood with a joke.  TIm was unamused.

“Uh… Thanks.  I guess.”  He sat down on the edge of the bed and continued to look at Jay, silently begging him to say something.

“So…” Jay tapped his fingers on the edge of the table,  _ I hope he isn’t always this awkward _ . “Breakfast? Then we can head back to the hospital.”  Tim nodded, and Jay grabbed his camera and bag.

 

The hotel didn’t have a continental breakfast, or even vending machines, so Jay ended up driving both of them to a small local diner.  The diner was empty save for a few people sitting at the bar, who turned to stare at the two when they walked in.  A waitress stared at them from behind her register, stopping her transaction.  Tim was looking down, and Jay began tugging at the hem of his own sweater.  The waitress came back to life and walked over to them soon after.

“Table for two?” She phrased it as a question, but immediately began leading them to a table in the far corner of the restaurant.  It was small, round, with cutlery and glasses of water already laid out.  “What can I get for y’all? Coffee, water-”

“Coffee is fine,” Tim interjected. The waitress tucked her notepad back into her dress and walked away to brew coffee.  Jay opened the menu and skimmed over it.  He wasn’t particularly hungry, he’d probably just get hash browns or something.  Tim had his arms crossed on the table, and was tapping his fingers into the crook of his arm.  He wasn’t too interested in the menu.

The waitress returned soon after with the coffee and took their orders.  Tim ended up ordering something, surprisingly, even though it was just the simple breakfast.  Jay got hashbrowns.  It was an awkward silence, neither of them saying anything, just listening to the slow beats over the radio and the quiet chatter of the other customers.  

Tim had drank three cups of coffee by the time that their food had arrived.  Jay, by comparison, had only drank half of his cup.  Jay poked at his food and thought of conversation starters while he stared at Tim.  Words were never really his strong suit; the only time he was comfortable speaking to people was when he was talking to Alex.  But Alex was gone, so. 

_ Wait a second. Alex _ .

“Hey Tim,” He paused to finish chewing the food in his mouth, “You might know something about this.  My friend went missing a few years ago, and before he disappeared he was digging around at the Hospital.  I don’t know how long you’ve worked there, but uh.. His name was Alex.”

Tim stopped, fork in midair, and looked up to meet Jay’s eyes. “Alex Kralie?”

“Yeah.”

“Um… I might’ve heard something about him.” He didn’t elaborate, just began eating again.

“Well, what did you hear? He’s kinda, uh, the whole reason I went to investigate.” 

“Let’s see…. He tried to interrogate some of the doctors, ya know?  Threatened some of them.  And like… broke in a few times. That’s all I know.”

Jay sighed.  

“That  _ does _ sound like Alex.  I’m sure I would’ve heard something if he got arrested though.  We went through his apartment and found a ton of tapes.  A shit ton of tapes; boxes and boxes of them.  I went through all of them, a lot of the more recent tapes had footage of him at the hospital.  Like, yeah, breaking in type stuff.”  Jay took a moment to finish up his food and let Tim eat more as well.  He felt like, now that he had a bit more information, he didn’t really know what to do with it. 

“Um.. thanks for buying me breakfast.” Tim said, quiet.  Jay shrugged.

“It’s no biggie.”

Awkward.  Tim wasn’t much of a talker either, but Jay felt the need to fill the silence.  After they were both done and the bill was paid they headed out to make their way to the hospital

“You’re a nurse, right?” Jay asked as he pulled out of the parking space.

“...Yeah, why?”

“Just..just making small talk..”

“Oh.”

It was quiet again. 

The drive didn’t last very long.  The hardest part was trying to find somewhere to park.  But, Jay remembered the security pass that he had found, and managed to weasel his way through the gate with it.  There was no guard out that day; probably because the place was in some form out lockdown.

There were a few cars in the parking lot around back, but not many. Jay parked his car and popped out.  It took Tim a minute, and when he got out he just stood there smoking.  When he was done, Jay spoke up.

“Are you ready?”

“Ready as I’m going to be.”


	5. Entry 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jay and Tim return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this chapter written for months and just...couldn't figure out what to write next.
> 
> This chapter is short because of what the next chapter will be, so bear with me.

Rosswood Asylum was strangely calm when they got inside.  It wasn’t empty; they could hear scuttling and saw a number of catatonic patients shuffling around.  Jay and Tim were both on edge, but it manifested in different ways for the both of them. Jay was excited whereas Tim was anxious. There were no signs of any guards, no doctors, no nurses.  They had to be somewhere, but--

_ There. _

The man from before, in the dirty beige hoodie and the hooded-mask.  He was kneeling over one of the computers by the guard’s desk. Jay shouted at him, and the man took off sprinting.  He decided to follow him, willing his scrawny legs to push him as fast as he could go. He completely forgot about Tim, but he could hear him breathing heavily as he struggled to keep up.

At some point, Tim fell behind, and Jay could no longer see the hooded man.  He was alone in a dark hallway, and while he couldn’t see anything, he could hear voices coming from ahead.  Eventually he came to a gate, almost like prison bars. Wait, no, they actually were prison bars, and inside he could see a number of patients about.  One was walking back and forth and smashing his head into various walls. Another man was shouting at a pillar. A few were just sitting around. Jay hesitantly opened the gate, which didn’t squeak (much to his surprise), and took a long look around.  He was on an upper floor, and saw a map on the wall immediately following the entrance. It read “male prison block’. The hooded man was nowhere to be seen, but he thought that he might as well try to find some clues.

He started by going up to the first room and peering inside.  The room was white, with padded walls and a messy white bed. There was nobody inside.  The second door was locked, and it was dark inside, so he decided it wasn’t worth it to try breaking it open.  The next room was the same as the first one, except for the blood and shit smeared on the walls. He lifted his camera and zoomed in on the markings.  The word “liar” was written in all caps, and below it a circle with an x through it. He could swear he’d seen that symbol somewhere before, but…

There was a loud crash and shouting from the lower floor.  He ran out of the room and looked over the edge. Some of the lights were out, and the inmates he had seen before were all gone. The stairs were unblocked so he decided to head down them.  It was eerily quiet, a stark contrast from moments before, and he couldn’t find any of the inmates. He assumed they had flocked to the rooms, since some of the doors were now closed, but he couldn’t figure out  _ why _ .  

Then there was thudding.

Thinking quick, Jay ran into one of the rooms and slammed the door behind him.  Thankfully, there wasn’t anyone else in the room. The booming footsteps were getting louder and louder, and Jay had crawled under the hospital bed.

The footsteps stopped outside of his door.

He held his breath.

He zoomed in with his camera in an attempt to see the person. It was incredibly blurry, but they appeared to be a large man wearing a dirty beige jacket (hmm….) and a white mask with black circled eyes, black lips, and black arched eyebrows.  The man was standing there, staring into the room, and Jay was  _ positive _ that he’d been found out; but after a few moments the man turned and walked away.

After the footsteps ceased, Jay scuttled out from under the bed, similar to how a roach would crawl from it’s hole in the wall, and stood up.  Behind the bed, he noticed a faint light; he pushed it aside to reveal a hole in the wall. If he was right, he was juuust skinny enough that he could fit through it.

So he tried.

And sure enough, he fit.  He found himself in another long hallway, on the other side of the gate from where he just was.  The hallway was dimly lit, and Jay turned the direction opposite of the gate only to look down and see bloody footsteps and streaks of blood, as if a body had been dragged across the wall, heading to the left.  At the end of the hallway were stairs, and because curiosity got the better of him, he followed the trail. At the stairs, the blood went downwards. So he went down another flight, then followed them through a gate.  The gate slammed behind him, but when he turned around, there was nobody there.

_ Alright, that was a little strange _ ..

Facing forward again, he jumped slightly as he noticed a patient.  The other man paid him no mind, and instead was repeating something frantically.  Shit smears on the wall read “ Here is something I have wanted to show you”.  There was a half-assed arrow pointing down to a hole in the ground.  Jay tiptoed through, and the patient made no move to even indicate that he noticed his presence.  Peering down into the hole, Jay sighed. It wasn’t too deep; it just went through to the floor below.  He tucked his camera into the pocket of his jacket and knelt down before hopping through the gaping floor. 

He landed on his ass, and stood up quickly while surveying the area.  Seemed clear… for now. There weren’t instructions on the wall, so it looked as if he’d have to figure things out on his own. 


	6. Entry 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who's that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wrow progress. Sorry for the late update, this has legit just been sitting finished for a few weeks now. Thought I had already posted it

Tim had seen him.  Jay had seen him.

The man in the dirty tan hoodie with the mask and the camera.

But that wasn’t why he was here.

After falling too far behind Jay to catch up, Tim decided to turn back and find the service corridors and make his way to the employee breakroom.  The walk was quiet enough, the patients left him alone. He maneuvered around the dead bodies, half of them which were most likely hallucinations, and eventually he made his way to the locked door.  Pulling a security clearance card from his pocket, he scanned it. The door clicked, signalling that it was unlocked, and he walked in.

It was clean, however, one of the tables was missing.  Tim paid it no mind as he walked to the lockers and opened them up one by one.  He found more cartons of cigs, which he took, and one of the lockers had somebody’s bag in it--which contained clothing.  He looked through the bag, and sure enough, the clothes were just big enough that he could probably squeeze into them. He slung the bag over his shoulder and pocketed a switchblade that slipped out of one of the pouches.

_ Creak creak creak creak cr _

Ok, so that’s not the best noise to hear when you think you’re alone.  There was rapid metal-against-wall creaking, and it was  _ close _ .  Tim inched towards the noise, and finally peered around the corner.

He wished he hadn’t.

The man that he saw stopped his motions and turned around, spotting Tim immediately.

“ _ Ah, pretty, pretty man… I know you,” _

Tim turned heel and sprinted out of the room, though the sprint didn’t last very long as he was completely out of shape.  However, the man wasn’t following behind him, so he took a minute to lean against the wall and breath.

Next stop, medicine vault.

 

 

The pharmacy was in the service corridors as well; if it could even be called a pharmacy.  It was in the basement, a large room holding all the different medicine and medications used throughout the hospital.  Tim was looking for medication, and he knew the names so he was easily able to find them. He counted out enough medication to last him a few months, and shoved the few bottles into his bags.  As an afterthought, he grabbed an assortment of pain pills and shoved them all into a bottle. He could deal with that later.

He walked a bit further, until he was out of the service corridor and near the male ward.  He heard shuffling behind him, and turning around, he was immediately slammed backwards by the force of a much larger body.  His head hit the wall hard, and he was out.

 

 

 

Jay ran around the maze of the sewer that he had found himself in.  When he managed to get out, the only things he had gotten from inside were a few more batteries and some files.  He had also found Tim, shortly after making his way back to the entrance to the parking lot he was parked in. Tim was outside, shaky and chainsmoking.  Jay came up to him slowly, and spoke softly.

“Tim?”

Tim jumped a bit, still startled.  He turned to look at Jay and Jay noticed that his face was bruised and his pupils were dilated.

“Oh, uh, hey Jay.  Find anything?” Tim cleared his throat.

“Not...not really.  Some more writing. Someone is leaving messages for me that lead to files. I’ll look through the files when I get back to the hotel.” Jay hit a button on the key fob to unlock the car, and climbed in.  Tim hesitated, but then got into the passenger side. He threw his bag into the backseat and buckled in.

“Can…. Can I stay with you again tonight?”  It came out low and quiet, and Jay shot a look at him.

“I, uh.. Sure.  I mean. If you’re fine sharing a bed.  I don’t know if I can sleep in a chair again tonight.”

“Oh.”  
Tim was flushed faintly, and he looked out the window.  There was no more conversation after that. The radio was quiet, but it was playing from a CD, Tim noticed.  The music caught his attention and he fixated on it. He was so focused that he didn’t notice when the phone in the bag he’d grabbed started ringing.

“Tim.  Tim. Are you going to answer your phone?”  
“Huh?”

“Your phone. It’s ringing.”

“I don’t have a phone.”

At this, Jay was confused. 

“Well, it’s not my phone.  My phone died while we were still in the hospital.”

SIlence again, save for the fake chirping of the phone’s ringtone.  Tim didn’t make a move to grab it and Jay didn’t bring it up again. Eventually, it stopped ringing.

 

 

When they arrived at the hotel, Jay dumped the files onto the desk and booted up his laptop.  Tim thumbed through his own bag and found clothing to change into.

Jay shouted to Tim, who was in the bathroom, about to shower.

“Do you recognize the name Brian Thomas?” 

Tim didn’t respond, and Jay repeated himself.  Tim came out of the bathroom, wearing grey sweatpants and a dark blue hoodie with “RWU” in big block letters across the chest. 

“Uh, no, I don’t recognize the name,” He was lying through his teeth and surprisingly, the other man could tell.

“What is up with you today? You’re being weird,” He paused, “not that I know you well but stop being so suspicious.”

“Uh, yeah, I do know him.  We worked together. Why?”

“His name is in one of these files.  Talking about a patient he had, I guess.  Some dude named….” Jay squinted to try and see through the sharpied-out name. “Well, I can’t see the name, but whatever.  The dude in the mask pointed me to these files. Actually, there was another guy in a mask today. A big guy, in a tan jacket.  I don’t know what’s going on with the beige mask theme here.”

“Don’t ask me.”

“Ok.”

Jay tapped away on his laptop while Tim searched the bag to find the phone.  Once he found it, he discovered that it didn’t have a passcode, so he flipped through it.  The missed call from earlier had been from a blocked number, so he figured the number was from whoever the phone actually belonged to.  Jay was flipping through the files and Tim internally thanked whatever deity there may be that his name was blacked out.

 


End file.
